


Day Two - Bed Sharing

by thatmitchsentho



Category: Pitch Perfect
Genre: F/F, MW Day Two, Mitchsen Week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 08:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18807334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatmitchsentho/pseuds/thatmitchsentho
Summary: Beca’s so exhausted after Worlds, all she wants to do is get some sleep. Only that’s not happening because Amy has a gentleman caller in the room. While she sits in the lobby inventing the ways in which Amy will pay, Aubrey finds her and tells her she can stay in her room.





	Day Two - Bed Sharing

Beca couldn’t believe it. She was absolutely exhausted, and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. She’d been up for what felt like days before this Worlds performance, writing arrangements with Emily and running choreography with Stacie and Chloe. Oh and, of course, the irrefutable pressure of needing to win Worlds in order to make sure the Bellas weren’t disbanded.

So now that it was all over and they’d won, bed was definitely high on her list of priorities. At least it had been, until she’d gotten back to her hotel room. Most of the girls were still out celebrating the night. There was a lot of alcohol, but Beca had called it quits early, ready to crawl into the firm hotel bed and sleep as long and hard as she could. Except Amy, her suite mate, had apparently beaten her there. 

The Do Not Disturb sign was on the door handle. Amy had joked about that stupid sign when they’d lugged their bags up to the room, saying she’d slip it on the door if she got some action. Only now, she guessed, it wasn’t a joke. She sighed and pulled her phone out, sending a couple of texts to see if any of the other Bellas were nearby so she could crash in their room, except they went unseen. Or unreplied to at the very least. Not surprising, since they were all having a great time when she’d left.

She debated possibly going into her room anyway and telling Amy and whatever random she’d picked up to get the fuck out so she could sleep but she didn’t think she’d survive whatever mental image might be burned into her brain if she did that. She muttered to herself that she was going to kill Amy and figured she might try and catch a cup of coffee while she waited for whichever Bella was next to come back to the hotel.

The hotel cafe had closed but there was a 24/7 coffee shop across the road so she headed across and grabbed a half-strength latte, hoping that amount of caffeine wouldn’t damage her dreams of a decent sleep and settled into a couch in the hotel lobby. She kept checking her phone, hoping that one of her friends would see her SOS and save her, but it was pretty evident that she was screwed. She began plotting the many, many ways she was going to make Amy pay for this in her head.

“Hey,” a voice interrupted. Beca looked up and saw Aubrey.

“Hey,” Beca said. “I didn’t realise you were staying here with us.”

“Yeah,” Aubrey said. “Why are you sitting down here frowning at your coffee?”

“Amy has someone in our room,” Beca grumbled. “I tried texting the others but nobody has answered. I just wanted to try and get some sleep.”

“Come on then,” Aubrey said. “I’ve got a king suite, we can share.”

“Seriously?” Beca asked hopefully.

“Yeah,” Aubrey shrugged. “I left Chlo and the others in town, they don’t look like they’re coming back any time soon.”

“You’re a lifesaver,” Beca said. They headed over toward the elevator.

“Exhausted?” Aubrey asked as the doors slid closed.

“So exhausted,” Beca said. “I never gave you enough credit for how much work it takes to run this group. Especially with Amy in it. She’s more trouble than the rest of them combined.” Aubrey smiled a little. 

“I’m glad you called,” Aubrey said. “Having the generations of Bellas here like that was a great move. Even if it hadn’t won the title, it would have been worth it.”

“It kind of just popped into my head,” Beca said. “Emily and I were working on her song and she lamented that her mom was always around to sing backup and she missed her.”

“She’s very talented,” Aubrey said.

“I’m confident leaving the Bellas to her,” Beca said. “She gets that it’s not just about music.” The elevator stopped at their floor and Beca trailed Aubrey down the hallway until she pulled a keycard out and unlocked a door.

“I tend to sleep on the right side,” Aubrey said. 

“I can sleep on the couch,” Beca offered. 

“Ew,” Aubrey said. “Beca, that’s disgusting. How often do you think they clean the fabric on the furniture in a hotel room? At least with the sheets there’s a reasonable assumption of cleanliness.”

“I - - can honestly say I’d never thought about that and now I’m grossed out,” Beca said. “I don’t even think I’ll sit on a hotel room couch again.”

“I don’t,” Aubrey said. “I’ll just change and then you can use the bathroom.” Beca silently removed her shoes and jacket. She was still wearing jeans and a tee, so she stripped the jeans off. She hoped Aubrey wasn’t super prudish about that kind of thing. 

“All yours,” Aubrey said, coming out of the bathroom in a pair of shorts and a tank. She hadn’t flinched at Beca’s lack of pants. 

“Thanks,” she said.

By the time she got out, Aubrey had killed the lights and was in bed with the lamp on. Beca made her way around to the left side of the bed and got in carefully, sure to leave enough space between them so as not to make Aubrey uncomfortable.

“I won’t bite,” Aubrey said. “Chloe and I shared beds like a thousand times, I’m fine.” That made Beca breathe a little easier, and she relaxed. Aubrey flicked the light off, and it was almost pitch black save for a strip of light under the hotel room door, and a vague glow around the curtain at the window. 

“So what are you going to do now?” Aubrey asked. Beca was confused.

“Sleep?” she said.

“No you bonehead,” Aubrey said, and Beca could basically hear her roll her eyes through the tone of her voice. “Now that it’s over. Worlds. College.”

“Yeah, that whole adulting thing,” Beca said. “Um, that song Em and I did together was enough for my boss to make me a producer. Assistant to start. But that’s, like, really cool. So it looks like I’m hanging around Atlanta for a while. It’s what I wanted, you know? Even if wasn’t Residual Heat, I wanted to get my foot in the door.”

“That’s great,” Aubrey said. “I quit my job. Before we left for Worlds.”

“What!?” Beca said. “You quit the lodge? But you were like, amazing at it.” She heard Aubrey chuckle.

“Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have to love it,” Aubrey said. “And I was good at it, and the lodge was successful, but I wasn’t happy, you know?”

“So what are you going to do?” Beca asked.

“That’s the million dollar question,” Aubrey said. “I’m not sure. I talked to my mom about it all, and she was surprised. But she also said that they’re happy to allow me some time to decide what I want. That makes me very fortunate, I know. Not many people have the family trust to prop them up while they do their soul searching.”

“Are you planning on hanging around Atlanta?” Beca asked.

“To start, I guess,” Aubrey said. “For me, the hardest part about the lodge is that it was a crushingly lonely sort of place. Yes there was a whole staff of people, but do they ever really want to hang out with the crazy boss who terrifies all the Fortune 500 businessmen? No.”

“You’ve been lonely?” Beca asked quietly. 

“Of course I have,” she replied. Beca let her hand slide out to take Aubrey’s in an attempt at comfort. “As much as I use a hard exterior to protect myself, I still don’t like being alone.” Beca squeezed softly.

“I’ll see you that hard exterior and raise you sarcastic indifference,” Beca said. “I know what you mean though. I tend to suffer in silence because I can’t bear the thought of burdening someone else with my drama. I know the girls would be there, especially Chloe, but I barely know how to even say the words ‘I need help’ or ‘can you please stay so I’m not alone’. I know a lot of it was self inflicted but I felt alone a lot more than someone who lived in the Bellas house should.”

“What about Jesse though?” Aubrey asked. Beca realised Aubrey had no idea that things hadn’t worked out with Jesse.

“Oh dude, we haven’t been a thing in such a long time,” she said. “We’re still friends, obviously. Him and Benji coming out to support us was super rad. But we both want extremely different things. He wants to move to LA and find a girl, settle down, write movie scores, have a bunch of kids. Me, I’d rather float around, travel, make music. Experience more than just the one pocket of America.”

“Married?”

“If the right guy or girl presented themselves,” Beca said. “Jesse is great. But he’s very codependent in his relationship. I’d rather be with someone who is a little less clingy. I still need space to think and breathe.”

“Yeah, me too. Honestly, I don’t think the marriage thing is that important to me. But having that close relationship is. Very controversial in my southern values family, but it is what it is.” Beca realised that Aubrey’s thumb was tracing over her skin softly. It was probably subconscious on the Aubrey’s part, but it felt nice. 

“I haven’t even told my dad about my job yet,” Beca admitted. “I know he still wants me to follow a more traditional career path, but I literally cannot imagine doing anything else.”

“That’s what I’m looking for,” Aubrey said. “That feeling. I want to have something in my life that I wake up and I’m genuinely excited about it. I just don’t know what it is or where to find it.”

“Well if you’re in Atlanta any time and you want to be not alone with someone, look me up,” Beca said. “You can keep your hard exterior on and I’ll be sarcastic and indifferent but at least we won’t be alone.” Aubrey smiled and fell silent. Beca yawned, and it looked like their conversation was done for the night. There was a soft rustle as Aubrey shifted to her side. Beca was almost asleep when she caught a soft sniffling sound.

“Bree?” she ventured. “Are you crying?”

“How can I be in my mid twenties with no idea what I want to do with my life and a hugely irrational fear of being alone that contradicts my patterns of pushing anyone away who gets too close?” Aubrey choked into the darkness. Beca was stunned. Aubrey had always seemed like she had her shit together, but that wasn’t the case apparently. She did the only thing she could think of to do, which was to scoot across the bed and wrap an arm over her, holding her close.

“It’s not just you,” Beca said. “I think none of really know what the hell we’re doing, some of us are just better at faking it than others.” She let herself curl into Aubrey and the two of them fell asleep that way.

Beca woke first the next morning and soon realised she was still spooning Aubrey. And what’s more, Aubrey had a tight grip on her hand rendering her unable to move. Well, not without waking her, anyway. So she waited until Aubrey began to stir and then she felt the older woman stiffen and hastily let go of her hand. 

“Don’t freak out,” Beca said softly. “You’re okay.” She felt Aubrey relax as she more than likely remembered what had happened between them late last night.

“Oh,” Aubrey said. “Um... sorry about that. I just woke up and there was someone in the bed and it’s been a long time since I woke up with someone else next to me and I freaked out.”

“Just me,” Beca said. They pulled apart and lay there with a slight awkwardness. 

“About last night,” Aubrey ventured. “Everything I said...”

“No, I get you,” Beca said. “Your late night bed confessions are safe with me.”

“Thank you,” Aubrey said. “And I’ll keep what we talked about to myself as well.”

“I wonder if Amy’s gentleman caller has vacated the room yet,” Beca said with a sigh. “I swear if I don’t get a shower in before we have to get our shit together to catch the flight back I’m going to murder her.”

“Are you guys on the afternoon flight out?”

“Yeah,” Beca said. “Emily has exams soon so we want to get her back with enough time to recover from jet lag and get some study in.”

“I’m not flying out til the morning,” Aubrey said. “Looks like about a million people are booked in for tonight’s flight, the agent said my one tomorrow is almost empty. But I’d like to crash lunch with you guys before you get away. Tell Chlo to call me.” Beca got up and began tugging her jeans back on. 

“Yeah, for sure,” Beca said. She grabbed her bag with one hand and her shoes in the other. “Hey thanks for letting me crash here.”

“No prob,” Aubrey said. She waited until Beca was all the way at the door with her hand on the knob before she spoke again. “Hey Beca?”

“Yeah?” she said. Aubrey got up and made her way over to her. 

“What you said about me looking you up in Atlanta so we can hang out,” she said. Beca couldn’t believe that she seemed nervous. “You mean that?” Beca transferred her bag to her shoulder and tucked some of her hair behind her ear. 

“Well, yeah,” Beca said. “Everything I said was true, Aubrey. I get what it means to be lonely. A little bit terrified. I mean, I’m moving into a new place in a couple of weeks but you have my number. And I feel like after last night it’s pretty clear you and I have a lot in common.”

“Thank you for last night,” she said. Then she leaned forward and kissed Beca. It wasn’t on her mouth, but it wasn’t exactly on her cheek either. Just that almost-lips space, and probably a couple seconds longer than it needed to be. “See you at lunch.”

Beca walked back to her room in a daze. Because that not-a-kiss but not-not-a-kiss was incredibly out of the blue. They had never been that kind of friends before. They’d hugged, and last night they had held hands, but they’d never been the kind of friends that put their lips on each other, not even a little. 

She thought about it on the elevator ride back down to her own room and all the way to her door. The sign wasn’t hung on her door any more so she grabbed her keycard out and opened the door. 

The room was an absolute mess. It looked like even her bed hadn’t been spared. Recalling her conversation with Aubrey last night, she glanced at the couch and shuddered, only imagining what it had been subjected to the night before. The bathroom door opened and Amy came out. Thankfully, she was alone. 

“Hey there she is,” Amy said. “Where’d you end up last night?”

“Sitting in the hotel lobby so I didn’t end up interrupting whatever it was that you were doing in here,” Beca said. “Dick move, Amy.”

“Yeah... sorry about that,” Amy said without a shred of sincerity. “So you what, slept in the lobby?”

“Crashed in Aubrey’s room,” Beca said. “But you fucking owe me.” She gingerly walked around the trail of destruction to get to her suitcase. 

“He’s gone,” Amy said.

“Great,” Beca said. “I need to shower before we make it out for lunch.” She gingerly moved around the assorted detritus on the floor toward her suitcase to pull out some clean clothes and disappeared into the bathroom. She treated every surface in there with suspicion, cursing again when she realised there were no clean towels for her to use.

“Amy!” she yelled. “How the fuck did you manage to use four towels last night?”

“Hang on, cap!” Amy yelled in a vague panic. “I’ll get you one.” There was a clunk as the door closed and another as it reopened.

“Stole a couple off the maids trolley,” she said, huffing heavily as she stuck her arm into the bathroom and waving the towels like a victory flag. Beca took them and set about drying herself off.

Amy was wisely absent when Beca was done and she had at least made an effort to right the ramshackle state of the room. Beca quickly repacked all of her things so that she didn’t have to rush that afternoon and checked her phone before meeting up with the others in the lobby.

Lunch was a curious affair. It was generally fine, but Beca was seated opposite Aubrey. It wasn’t awkward or anything - it wasn’t like they were sitting around the table talking about their late night confessions with the other Bellas. But Beca had to admit that she was seeing Aubrey differently. All of the toughness, all of the polished finish that Aubrey normally sported, she felt like she was seeing through it all now. Because Aubrey had said it. She was lonely. Unsure. A little bit scared. 

She hoped that when they got back home, Aubrey did call her to hang out. She was now wondering what else there might be to discover about Aubrey, because what she was learning, she was liking. 

It wasn’t to say that she liked the idea of Aubrey being scared, but it was nice to know that someone who seemed to have it all as together as Aubrey did felt the same way she did from time to time. Things were going pretty well for her in general, life at the studio was going better than she had anticipated, but she still didn’t always feel confident.

They broke up after lunch, the girls all heading back to the hotel to rush and pack the last of their things so they could head home. Aubrey mentioned something about taking a nap as they piled off on their floor, Chloe chiming that she’d text her with updates about their trip home so someone was aware of what they were doing. 

Beca had basically packed, thanks to her effort that morning, and she did watch Amy’s frantic and chaotic attempt at packing with a certain amount of smugness. Only when it became evident that there was a chance Amy wasn’t going to make the flight and would therefore mean they would all miss it, she relented and helped her assemble her stuff. 

They made it to the airport with only a little time to spare and queued up to check in for the flight. Beca sorted out her luggage while she waited for all the other girls to check in, making sure her gear case was properly scanned in and labelled as valuable/insured before she stepped up to the counter and handed over her slip. The man behind the counter cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable.

“Ms Mitchell, as is our policy at United, at times our flights are overbooked to ensure we reach capacity seating and also to allow the return of service staff who may have exceeded their allocated on shift hours,” the man said in accented English. 

“You’re kidding,” she said. “Seriously?”

“Unfortunately your seat had been allocated as an overbooking and it has been taken by a priority customer,” he said. “That customer has already checked in and your seat is no longer available.”

“The fact that I’m travelling in a group and we booked a month ago isn’t going to change that is it?” she said. Chloe saw that she was starting to get frustrated and came over.

“What’s going on?” she asked. 

“Guess whose seat was sold on the overbooking policy?” Beca grumbled. Chloe’s eyes widened. 

“You’re not serious,” she said. “But we’re in a group.”

“We can offer you a partial cashback for the inconvenience,” the man said. “And we can transfer your ticket to tomorrow morning’s flight at ten.” Beca paused for a second. Aubrey was flying out at ten.

“Yeah, can you give me a second here so I can make a quick call?” Beca said. She and Chloe moved away.

“They can’t do that,” Chloe said. 

“Have you never seen a story about this?” Beca said. “They do it all the time. But I remember Aubrey said she was flying out in the morning, so I’ll give her a call and see if I can crash with her again tonight, that way I won’t be running around on my own.”

“Good idea,” Ashley said. “They’re still dickfaces though.” 

“Definitely,” Jessica said. Beca dug out her cell and dialled Aubrey, hoping she wasn’t busy. Or napping.

“Hello?” 

“Hey, Aubrey it’s Beca,” she said. “I have a massive favour to ask. Like, huge.”

“What is it? Aren’t you at the airport?”

“We are,” Beca said. “My seat got double booked and I’m being punted to tomorrow morning’s flight. Any chance I can crash with you again tonight?”

“Of course,” Aubrey said. “That’s shitty, though.”

“Right?” Beca said. “I’ll catch a taxi back to the hotel if that’s okay.”

“Have they allocated you a seat yet?” Aubrey asked. “If they haven’t get them to put you in 10B or C.” She moved back to the counter and spoke to the man.

“Any chance you can put me in 10B or C?” Beca said. “Got a friend flying out tomorrow.” He scanned quickly and nodded.

“Yes, we can arrange that,” he said. 

“Yeah,” Beca said. “He’s doing that. Thanks Aubrey. Dinner on me tonight, okay?”

“Call me when you get to the hotel,” Aubrey said. “And tell the girls I said safe flight.”

“Will do.” She hung up and the man was arranging her new flight details for her. 

“We do apologise for the inconvenience,” he said. “And we appreciate your understanding during this event.”

“Yeah, well getting pissy with you isn’t going to help, is it?” Beca said. The man gave her a relieved smile. “It’s not like you make the policy, you’re just the dude at the counter who has to break the bad news.”

“I’ve refunded the maximum amount I’m permitted to authorise back to your card,” he said, a lot more relaxed. “Seriously, not getting screamed at is a welcome change.”

“No biggie,” Beca said. “Lucky I have another friend in town til the morning.” She took her new flight paperwork and met the huddle of Bellas. 

“I’m going to get the morning flight out with Aubrey,” Beca said. “And I’m just going to crash with her tonight. So now neither of us are going to be travelling alone, so that’s a bonus. I just gotta take a cab back to the hotel now.”

“I’d offer to wait,” Chloe said, “but they’re boarding. I’ll grab your gear case though.” She pulled the stub out of her bag for it and handed it to Chloe.

“Thank you,” Beca said. “Text me when you land.” She turned and waited for the girls to make it through before she left them before she retraced her steps through the airport. She already knew the address of her hotel so she was able to communicate that much with her taxi driver who spoke about as much English as she did Danish. But she got there with no dramas and sent a text to Aubrey that she was back. 

She waited in the lobby until the former Bella came out of the elevator, and the two of them rode back up to the room relatively quietly. Beca didn’t really know what Aubrey was thinking but for some reason she couldn’t stop thinking about last night and the way their hands felt together, about waking up that morning tightly wrapped together. 

“So they double booked your seat?”

“Yeah but I guess it worked out okay,” Beca said. “I more feel sorry for whichever person took my seat, they get to sit next to Amy the entire flight back. Probably works out pretty good for Amy too, I still want to kill her for last night and also for having used every single towel when I got back to the room.” Aubrey laughed.

“I didn’t have anything really planned for tonight, just dinner and bed early,” Aubrey said.

“I meant what I said about dinner being my treat though,” Beca said. “You’ve saved my can two nights in a row.”

“It doesn’t have to be fancy,” Aubrey said. “There’s a pizza place around the corner and down the street a little, I ate there my first night in. We can walk there in about ten minutes.”

“Done,” Beca said. “Let me just change out of these sweatpants and put some jeans on.”

Beca ducked into the bathroom to change and they made their way back downstairs. The weather was warm, but sticky like it might rain at some point during the evening. But neither of them thought about it in depth as they walked the ten minutes to the restaurant. To Beca’s suprise, Aubrey knew a little Danish and asked for a table toward the far wall.  
“You speak Danish?” Beca asked, as they opened the menu.   
“A tiny bit,” Aubrey said. “Honestly. Dad spent most of my childhood on Army bases all over the world. When he was away, I’d always look up whatever country he was in, read about it, try and learn some of the language. He was in Denmark the year I turned nine.”  
“What other languages do you have up your sleeve?”  
“Italian, French, German, Mandarin, the smallest bit of Arabic, learned Spanish in high school,” Aubrey replied.  
“And the Danish,” Beca said.  
“Yes, the Danish,” Aubrey said.  
“Which is great, because I know none and I don’t really know what this menu says,” Beca said.  
“How about a garlic starter,” Aubrey said, “then they’ve got some weird combos but something nice and safe like roasted chicken, red onion and scallions?”  
“Sounds good to me,” Beca said. “And may as well grab a bottle of wine, make a proper night of it.” She waited quietly as Aubrey conveyed their order to the waiter, who returned in surprising speed with their wine and poured them both glasses.  
They chatted their way through the first glasses and the garlic starter pizza, Beca looking around and seeing that the restaurant was mostly filled with couples. Then she looked over at Aubrey, who was fiddling with her wine glass, and for an instant she had an image of what it would have looked like when Aubrey was here a few days earlier, eating alone, probably at the table they were sitting at now.  
It struck her with a pang of sadness.  
She didn’t have time to dwell on it, with the waiter bringing their pizza to the table. He offered to refill their glasses and then disappeared again, leaving them to enjoy the meal. When they were done with the pizza, Aubrey ordered them both coffee, which he brought back a few minutes later with a billfold.   
“Whenever you are ready,” he said in passable English. “Thank you for dining with us tonight. Enjoy the rest of your date night.” Aubrey immediately flushed pink but Beca chose not to make a big deal out of it. She figured it must just be that kind of restaurant, pretty much favoured by couples. And the comment had been innocent enough.

The tension around the moment dissipated relatively quickly. They were about done anyway, so once the coffee was gone, Beca stuffed an appropriate amount of money plus a tip into the black billfold and they began to walk back to the hotel.

It had gotten a little cooler but it was still nice out. They briefly debated wandering for a while but it seemed better to head straight back to the room since they had a morning flight. There was nothing much on the television so they turned it off after about an hour and got changed for bed.

For some reason Beca found lying in bed next to Aubrey was considerably more awkward than the night before. She wondered if Aubrey felt as weird as she did. She was replaying the night, the blush on Aubrey’s face as the waiter had mistaken them for a couple. She couldn’t argue that Aubrey was undeniably pretty, and it hadn’t been unflattering in any way that the waiter had assumed they were a couple, in her opinion. 

She rolled over and found that Aubrey was facing her. Watching her, not saying or doing anything, just watching. It was impossible to tell what the girl was thinking, but Beca knew she wasn’t imagining it when Aubrey shifted just a tiny bit closer. Beca moved closer herself, just a couple of inches, their eyes locked together. She reached out a hand under the covers, but before she could touch her, Aubrey was up and making her way into the bathroom.

Beca sat up in the bed. She could hear muttering like Aubrey was talking to herself. But the longer she sat there the more she realised that she actually did want to kiss her. She wanted to take a chance and do something, now, while they didn’t have the added pressure of a dozen Bellas. So she stood up and moved over toward the ensuite door. The tap turned on and off briefly before Aubrey reappeared, and Beca said nothing, just stepped toward her.

“Beca, I th-“ she began, but stopped when Beca’s hand ran down her arm to take her hand. Her eyes fluttered closed, so Beca waited until she opened them before she stepped in closer. Aubrey didn’t move away, her eyes flicked over Beca’s face and lingered at her lips, illuminated by the cool glow of the bathroom light. 

“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Beca said softly. “All I know is I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since last night. And I don’t know what it means, but I also kind of don’t care?”

“I’m not good with being vulnerable in front of people,” Aubrey said. “But I was with you. And that should terrify me, but it doesn’t. Okay, maybe a tiny bit. But I’d say that was more to do with me than you.”

“Does it terrify you if I say I want to kiss you?” Beca asked. The shake of her head was slight, almost imperceptible in the dark, but Beca saw it. She let a hand softly cradle the side of Aubrey’s face. Aubrey turned into it, lips brushing against the heel of her hand as lightly as the brush of a feather. It was enough to reassure this was something Aubrey wanted, so she leaned up on her toes to kiss her.

It was tentative at first. Not in the way that they might think that they didn’t want this to be happening, but in the same way that all first kisses were. Slow, unsure as they figured out how their mouths fit together, how the moment was going to progress. 

It progressed slowly. Beca was in no hurry and she could sense that Aubrey didn’t want to rush either. So the first few long moments they spent kissing were standing in the middle of the hotel room before they even made a move toward the bed. 

It was Aubrey who moved first - Beca needed her to make the move so she could be sure she was okay with what was happening - and it was equally as comforting to Aubrey that Beca let her take control. So she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Beca in by her hand until the younger woman was climbing on top of her and they both fell into the mattress. 

It wasn’t tentative any more. Aubrey’s hands at her waist were not unsure, they were firm and they held her securely. The tongue in her mouth was not shy. Their legs soon entwined and Beca couldn’t help but run a hand up and inside the shirt Aubrey was wearing. 

“This okay with you?” Beca asked as it moved along the smooth skin.

“Um, yeah,” Aubrey said, but she didn’t sound sure, so Beca stopped.

“We can stop,” Beca said.

“Please don’t stop,” she said. “I just... it’s good, but I don’t know if I can-”

“Gotcha,” Beca said, leaning in and kissing her again. “More kissing, a little touching. If it gets too much, just say the word.”

“Can we move back up to the pillows?” Aubrey asked. “Back where we were?” Beca slid off of her and they got back under the blankets in the bed. This time, Aubrey made her way across toward Beca and kissed her deeply, half making her way onto Beca’s body.

They kept going for a while longer before they kind of naturally tapered off, ending in softer kisses before Aubrey fell asleep with Beca’s arm tightened over her again. 

Their alarm went off relatively early - Beca wasn’t surprised that Aubrey’s plan included getting to the airport with plenty of time to spare. They both took showers and made their way downstairs to take a taxi back to the airport, waiting until after they’d checked in to grab something to eat. 

The terminal wasn’t nearly as busy this time of morning as it had been last night, and once they boarded the plane they saw that it was in fact, quite empty. Maybe one third full at best. Regardless, they were alone in their little row of seats and set about making themselves comfortable for the flight back.

“Beca?” Aubrey said, whilst they waited for boarding to finish. “I just want you to know that last night... it wasn’t just me looking for cheap comfort. I mean, I’m definitely comforted by you, but it was more than that for me. I think you and I... we could be something, you know?” Beca couldn’t help but smile.

“You know, I never really considered it before,” Beca said. “But I’m more than okay with this. Last night was... well. I think it was pretty obvious that both of us were into it.”

“Would you be okay with... maybe spending some more time together when we get back to Atlanta?” Aubrey asked. “Evaluating whether or not something might be worth pursuing with the two of us?” Beca smiled and let her hand reach out to take Aubrey’s.

“Relax,” Beca said. “We can get back home, settle in, hang out, go on a couple of dates, see what happens.” She felt Aubrey relax a little next to her.

“I can be very tense,” Aubrey said quietly.

“And I can be withdrawn,” Beca said. “We’ll figure it out.”

They fell silent for the safety briefing and didn’t speak again until well after the plane had taken off. Aubrey released the catch to raise the armrest between them and lifted it out of their way.

“This okay?” she asked, getting more comfortable. Beca just let her hand tangle back together with Aubrey’s and nodded as Aubrey leaned into her.


End file.
